We based our whole approach on 2 Tim 2:2 where there is a process described. Paul teaches Timothy in the presence of many, Timothy commits this to ” faithful ” (or reliable) men , and these in turn pass on to ” others also “. You never know if your Billy Sunday will pass on to a Billy Graham.

There are some discipling skills here in being able to teach and the stuff we did in 40 Days in the Word is classic Navigator material. We referred often to who we were “following up” after them becoming a new Christian, and these precious tools of study and meditation were fabulous for getting new Christians to feed on God for themselves.

The main thing though was the whole principle of “life on life” and we would rather see a sermon than hear one any day (that’s a quote, not an opinion!). This takes time and we had it reinforced regularly how important it was to get alongside people and let them see our lives. This enabled opportunities to share the why? as well as the how? as the Bible refers to us a “believers” not just followers. We believe something therefore faith and action follow.

My big challenge on all this is how we make time to develop the life-on-life process today, and how do you encourage commitment? We mainly rely on groups for our discipling process. Accountability is key. Most of us are busy with many good things and would find this hard to fit in, but that’s the way it seems to be. There is a sending out but there is a time afterward to reflect and make sense, we did it in the 70s/80s as students, not sure how that works today. There is definitely a relational element to all this without developing dependencies on humans. Maybe the answer is there is no formula, but that doesn’t tell me where to start.

Follow up was always called “conserving the fruit of evangelism”, I’m praying for a bunch of big, juicy fruit in 2013 !!

Dave Challis

I sent a reply a little while ago but got a message back saying it didn’t go through. If not, I will do it again as soon as possible.

Michael.

It was good to read your notes on Colossians 2, especially the definitions of Asceticism, Legalism and Mysticism. Being Jewish, but now truly Jewish as all the children of God are (Genesis 12 and Romans 2), I have had some experience of legalism. As for Mysticism, it’s God’s job to exalt us..we have to do the opposite (1 Peter 5:6). Sorry I don’t live near enough to come. I live in London and only have a Lumia 800 phone so not found podcasts yet.

God bless you,

Michael.

Tel 07739 836045.

Great talk last night! When you commented on Collosians 1:17 (All things hold together in Jesus) I thought you were going to mention a protein called Laminin. You might have seen this little clip before, but it is definitely worth watching.

God is amazing!

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=GYGWPNNX

Yvette